Remember the Vauxhall Vectra? It was an honest, down-to-earth, working-class car – staggeringly boring, but you knew where you stood with it. Then the Vectra was replaced, in 2008, by the Insignia, which is a bit posher, or thinks it is. This new model, the Country Tourer, is even more so: it's used its four-wheel drive to climb a bit farther up that slippery social hill. Bourgeois, basically, though underneath everything, it's still a Vauxhall. You know, the girl from The Only Way Is Luton who's making out she's Made In Chelsea.

Actually, the car is made at Opel's plant in Rüsselsheim, so it's really German. But that works, too, because it thinks it's an Audi, specifically an Audi A4 Allroad. You know the one? The estate with all-wheel drive and a little bit pumped-up with plastic cladding, as if it's been to the gym, though not obsessively so.

I've always quite liked the A4 Allroad, to be honest. I'm not a fan of big sports utility vehicles – they're too big for our roads and they are, according to my own extensive forensic research, 97% driven by wankers. But what if you want something that isn't going to be useless after a frost or half an inch of snow, with extra clearance to make it through if not Somerset, then at least a few puddles without drowning. The Allroad seemed like a possible, albeit pricey, solution.

Now this Vauxhall Country Tourer is an Audi alternative. Also all-wheel drive, also a bit (2cm) higher than the regular model, with smart plastic wheel arches to protect the paintwork from… well, rogue runaway trolleys in the car park at Tesco mostly. Waitrose even.

It's a handsome car, at least as handsome as the Audi, I'd say – nicely tapering, with a pleasingly scooped-out waist. The extra height and the wheel arches give it a poise and an attitude that a regular Insignia doesn't have. It's likable, too, in spite of its upwardly mobile tendencies. To drive, it's refined, easy, unfussy, if not spectacular. Inside, it's comfortable and cosy, again almost bordering on posh. And it's very practical, with loads of room for all your Waitrose shopping, and a nice flat opening for easy loading. The boot door opens at the touch of a button. Now that is classy.

There is one thing it definitely has in its favour over the Audi: it's around about £5,000 cheaper. Five grand: that's an awful lot to pay to have four status rings on the front of your car (£1,250 per ring, by my reckoning). And this one does come with a griffin, even if it is a griffin whose spiritual home, if not its actual birthplace, is Luton.